As part of the teaching and learning responses to artificial intelligence, the Sydney assessment framework classifies the dissertation as an ‘open assessment’ in which use of AI cannot be restricted and should be supported and scaffolded. To ensure student achievement in honours is verified, all honours programs must include an oral exam to ensure examiners are satisfied that the student has completed the work as described in the methods section with all assistance, including the use of generative AI, acknowledged.
This change affects all honours students who started in 2026 or later, so the first oral examinations will be running in semester 2 2026.
Although honours programs often contain multiple assessment types, key component is usually the dissertation. Generative AI tools can accurately mimic human output with currently available versions able to access and reference literature and produce coherent and integrated content across multiple chapters of a document the length of an academic dissertation. Such output cannot be reliably detected as AI generated by software or by humans – even expert and experienced markers. In recognition of this reality, the dissertation is consider an ‘open assessment’ in the Sydney assessment framework and the use of AI cannot be restricted in policy.
To secure the achievement of honours, an oral examination is now required in the Coursework Policy for every student starting their program in 2026 or later. The oral exam is used to assess the contribution, capabilities and understanding of the student of the field of study described in the dissertation.
At a minimum, the examiners must be satisfied that the student has completed the work as described in the methods section with all assistance, including the use of generative AI, acknowledged. Questions and discussion should focus on the thought and academic processes used by the student rather than just the content of the dissertation.
The oral examination must defined as a separate assessment in the unit outline and must be a hurdle task (as defined in the Assessment Procedures). This means that each student must meet the specified standard for the task in order to pass the unit of study the assessment sits within – and hence be awarded honours,
The oral examination may have a zero weight. If the oral exam is given a mark and is also used to grade other criteria, such as the quality of the research, the written work or a presentation, the passing mark should correspond to the minimum requirement above. Alternatively, an additional assessment should be used for these criteria.
Oral exams are considered secure assessments, as defined in the Academic Integrity Policy and must be conducted with in-person supervision by the examiners, to ensure the student does not access prohibited materials or resources. AI tools which can provide compelling answers to oral questions or even generate an accurate avatar to mimic a student’s face and voice are already available and so remote participation without in-person invigilation cannot provide the validation of learning required.
In exceptional cases where Special Arrangements have been approved and the student is not in the same location as the examiners, there must be an authorised invigilator, such as a member of academic staff at another institution, present with the student.
It is recommended that the oral exam is of duration 10-15 minutes to ensure that students have sufficient time to demonstrate what they know after settling in. Longer oral exams are very tiring for both the examiners and the student.
Students must have opportunities to prepare and know what to expect – e.g. be told how the assessment will run, for how long, the likely number of questions, whether they can bring physical notes or a printed copy of their dissertation. Examples of the types of questions that will be asked must be provided.
Students must be given the opportunities to practice, answer oral questions or a mock oral exam as part of their Honours coursework.
The exam itself must be run in a supportive and equitable way. Two or more examiners must always be used and the diversity of the panel must be considered.
For students with English as a second language, questions may be provided in a written form. An exception to this would be where English language is included implicitly or explicitly in the learning outcomes. However, the discussion should be organic in nature and students must not have the expectation that all questions are provided in written form or do not vary.
The oral exam needs to be accessible for all students. Individual academic plans need to be addressed and appropriate adjustments provided including the use of sign interpretation or assistive technology.
As an oral exam, special consideration is available as defined in Schedule 3 of the Assessment Procedures.
Rubrics and calibration amongst examiners may be considered to improve reliability.
Oral exams are in English or in same language as the thesis.
The student may have a support person present, who must not contribute, except with the consent of the Chair, but may ask for a break on behalf of the student.
Staff:
In many cases, disciplines already operate an oral examination as part of their honours program. It is not expected that the new policy will impact these except to ensure that the security and other requirements above are met. The AI for Educators website contains resources for running oral examinations and a number of Teaching@Sydney articles are available.
Students:
The Learning Hub is currently working with each faculty to determine the type of support, such as workshops, self-access resources and 1:1 consultations, which would most benefit each discipline.
Students deemed not to have satisfied the examiners that they have completed the work as described in the methods section must be given the opportunity for a supplementary oral examination.
The supervisor must provide additional support, including opportunities to practise, before the supplementary oral exams.
The supplementary oral exam must involve different questions and conversations.
Where the oral exam is graded, a discipline may limit the grade of the supplementary exam to 50%.
Students who do not pass the supplementary exams will fail the unit.